Zoom Zoom: Women Love Flash and Speed Too!

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Whether you prefer classics, muscle cars or futuristic cars, sports cars are sexy, and every woman, at some point in her life, dreams of owning one.

Even with kids to chauffeur to soccer matches or baseball games, upscale SUVs just don’t satisfy that urge to roar off into the sunset in the luxury car of your dreams. Let’s look at some of the most popular sports cars on the market, or locked away in a private garage, and try to decide which one is the one.

Classics
The classic sports cars include the Lotus Elise Series 2, Porsche 911 996 Series Gt3, the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, Jaguar E-Type Series 1, Lamborghini Diablo, Porsche Carrera GT and the Ferrari 250 GTO. These are the cars to dream about. The Lamborghini Diablo accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds. Aston Martin produced only 20 DB4 GTs in 1960, but the car was impressive. It went from 0 to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds with a top speed of 153 mph. The Jaguar E-Type Series 1 created quite a stir in 1961. It had sold over 70,000 units by the time production ceased in 1975. The car was reasonably priced and came with a choice of 3.8-liter or a 4.2-liter motor. The Ferrari 250 GTO is considered by many to be the best sports car ever made. Only 36 units were built in 1962; it would go from 0 to 60 in 6.1 seconds. It is the epitome of what a beautiful sports car should look like.

Classic sports cars are true gems that rarely come up for sale except to deep-pocketed aficionados. Rarity prices the Aston Martin DB4 GT at around a million bucks these days.

Muscles
Muscle cars are American-made two-door vehicles with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving. The Ford Shelby Cobra GT500, Dodge Viper GTS, Chevrolet Corvette 1968 L88 and the AC Cobra 427 are the true muscle cars.

Muscle cars lost favor but made a comeback in the ’80s, as Baby Boomers supported their resurgence. The Chevrolet Camaro Z28, the Ford Mustang GT, the Dodge Charger Shelby GLHS, the Camaro IROC-2 and the Mustang LX 5.0 were a few of the newer muscle cars that hit the roads. Even so, the 1989 Turbo Trans Am with its 300-hp motor and 13-second quarter-mile was the car; nothing on the road came close to it.

Movie franchises such as The Fast and The Furious helped introduce street cars or muscle cars to a new generation of fans. In many of the movies, the producers used imports such as the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, the Acura NSX, the Honda S2000 and the 1971 Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R, not true American muscle cars, but respectable rides. More importantly, the producers did use American muscle cars. The classic 1987 Buick GNX, the 1970 Ford Escort RS1600 Mk1, a 1970 Dodge Charger, the Corvette Grand Sport, the Ford GT40 and the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona have all appeared in the movies. Because of the rarity of the cars featured in the films, you can’t fault the producers for taking liberties with the replicas and adaptations to the cars.

New for 2018
What’s new? You will probably want to satisfy your dreams and yet take advantage of modern technology in your ride. Many of the new cars contain electric batteries, and the Asian cars are among the best new cars on the market.

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the premier sports car American manufacturers have for the coming year. It has even more power than the previous Hellcat with its 707-hp rating. I like the National Hot Rod Association certification of the Demon’s quarter mile at 9.650 seconds at 140.09 mph. I do. My problem with the Challenger is that it looks like what it is—a muscle car for drag racing. It’s not the ride-off-into-the-sunset sports car of my dreams.

For that, I’ll take the McLaren BP23. The McLaren F1 is legendary, and the newest version is a sports car to drool over. McLaren claims the BP23 pays homage to previous models but isn’t a successor. The sleek lines, the speed, faster than the 240 mph of the F-1, and the refined but luxurious detailing put this car in a class by itself. Did I mention that it has only three seats with the driver in the middle of the car and is a smooth ride? It goes for around $2.5 million.

Like me, you may have to settle for something else, like a 2018 Shelby GTE, according to some, a souped-up Mustang, but it looks like a race car. Or maybe you want to wait for the 2019 Shelby GT500, rumored to top out at 200 mph. Zoom zoom! ■

Sources: 2coolcars.com, hotrod.com and motortrend.com.